As an artist, I'm aware that my artwork can be stolen at any given time (that's just a given with ANYTHING you put on the internet). However, much like you, I haven't had my work stolen (to my knowledge), but I have watched as other artists I know and follow have had their work taken. The way I've seen them deal with the issue is to let their followers know who the thief is so they can report and move on (of course not all of them do so and instead attack the thief and give them the attention they want which is a big no-no).

Since like I said, I haven't had my work stolen to my knowledge, I can give a likely way I would deal with a thief.

The first thing I would do if one day I were notified of someone who reposted my art would be that I would personally talk to them (before letting any of my followers know of course). I would try to get them to take it down, and if they don't, I file a DMCA takedown with the site owners (which is easier said than done on DeviantArt since their reporting system is garbage, but that's another convo for another time).

If somehow that doesn't work, then I get to letting my followers know the dealio as well as give them steps to also report the user in question so that way the amount of reports would prompt the site admins to take down the infringing work. I am personally not a fan of when people attack thieves because it not only gives them the attention they want, but it worsens their behavior.

REALLY LONG POST INCOMING, I'M SO SORRY.

Not taboo, no! So long as everyone's chill with their answers and don't try to name names/point the finger at anyone here, this is definitely within the realm of stuff you can talk about. But, really, that's... how all of these topics go, sdkfjlhdkjfshd. Just be cool and eat your chocolate bar, and everything'll be a-okay.



Dealing with theft is pretty cut and dry with me. I JUST... DON'T, OOPS. I've been stolen from multiple times in the past – mostly in copy-pasted-the-code-and-said-it-was-mine ways, and to a lesser extent in I-changed-some-colors-and-fonts-and-now-it's-my-original-design ways – and while I definitely encourage other people to talk it out with the thieves or people in authority if the theft itself makes them uncomfortable, I can't personally be bothered by it. This isn't me saying it's cool to steal myself, sdkjlfhsdkjfh, it's still a Very Uncool Thing To Do, but. I have not made any money off of any of the codes I have done. While I'm more inclined to be upset about private codes I've done for myself, or even moreso specifically for friends being taken, most of my coding is free for use in the community, anyway. What do I honestly lose? Not much. Most people recognize my codes, anyway, because of how prevalent I've made myself in the community across the last three Proboards resources. Most people come to me about my stuff being stolen before I ever see it, and I site stalk hard. As what Relic says, in a gross kinda backwards way, it is a little flattering; if someone stole what you made, it meant that they liked it so much that they wanted people to believe that they did it themselves. Still uncool... but still kinda flattering.

Communication is definitely key in these situations. You might look at something and be like, “Well, they definitely knew what they were doing,” but some people just don't actually understand the weight of these actions? Maybe they're kids behind the screen, or maybe they're new to the community and didn't realize that “free-for-use” didn't equate to “no-credit-necessary”. Talk rationally with the thief; if they're rude and/or non-compliant, go to the admins of the forum the theft takes place on and see if they won't talk to the thief and/or remove the stolen content. I don't like the idea of “one and done” in terms of outing a person from a community, either – the idea that one offense marks them as “condemned”. A person's credibility doesn't lie in their ability to never make mistakes ever, but in being able to recognize other's and their own errors and doing their best not to emulate them. If someone is caught stealing after they have already been explicitly instructed of what that is and told not to do it again, maybe explore further punishment. One time offense can be an accident. Repeated offense – well, at that point, you should know better.



Determining theft is way more of a gray area than it has any right to be, and we can banter about it every day of the week and twice on Sunday and not necessarily get anywhere with it. And while a large part of why I don't pursue thieves is apathy toward it (really, it harms them more than me? Time they could have spent actually learning coding was wasted on taking mine, sdkljfhkjsdhfds), another part is that I can't really claim to be judge, jury, and executioner of the case of where something is original and where something is stolen. If code is copy-pasted and uncredited, that's theft. If words are copy-pasted and uncredited, that's theft. If designs look really similar – what's the verdict? This is exclusively about art and coding design, by the by, mostly because these are the only areas where I've been stolen from or have anything worth saying about, RIP.

The more simplistic the design, the harder it becomes to make a case of theft on – because, let's be real, anyone who's drawn an anime character has done a headshot, and while there's definitely variety to be had there, there's less than there is in a full body shot, or a piece with multiple characters and a crazy background. We have, like, three paintings of the same scene from the Rocky Mountains at my parents house, and they all look pretty similar. Is that theft? Eeeeeeh, probably not. The more complicated the design becomes, however, and the more overlapping similarities there are, the less of a leg you have to stand on. A template with five divs in it could be accidentally replicated by someone who's never even seen the “original” pretty easily – but if you've got, like, fifty of those suckers and gradients and transitions and junk and someone else “by chance” makes something with, like, three minor differences, even if their class names and organization are different, that's going to raise my eyebrows. If you can overlap two templates or two drawings, regardless of tools or organization used, and 90% of them line up, I'm going to have a hard time believing that was coincidental. Sorry, I just am. :/

I also think the idea of “I have different class names and wrote my CSS in a different order, so it's not theft even if it looks similar” is kind of silly, especially considering art theft happens in just the same way. You probably used different tools – but you still drew the same character... in the same pose... with the same colors... and you still didn't credit the original artist... So what gives?



Theft hurts the person being stolen from because you render their hard work, effectively, useless. You tell them that it doesn't matter that they were the ones that created something, just that it matters that something was created – and that thought process honestly kills the desire to create more and is just kinda a kick to the groin to the original maker. But theft also hurts the thief. Stealing one template is only going to ever get you that one template, and potentially trouble. Taking that same time and using it to learn how the person made that template is going to get you infinite possible templates, and opens the door to you becoming the next super rad coder in the community, like. Why would you even bother??? Doing the first thing??????

As a passing note, which I couldn't fit anywhere in my schpeel up there, I don't think using the “Great Masters” example is really viable, mostly because I don't think that was a good way of going about it in the past, much less in this day in age. Just because it was okay back then doesn't mean it should have been – because those people who made those backgrounds and those people who made those copies should have been given recognition that they don't usually get. :'D

Oh yeah, determining theft is a matter of perception. I'm not a coder, nor do I know how coding can be stolen (even after reading up on all of y'all's posts), but I can say for sure that with art, it's both objective and subjective what is considered "theft" of someone's work.

The objective side of theft of art is of course reposting and tracing. With reposting, it's clear that the thief didn't even make any changes to the picture (and sometimes they don't also remove the watermark/signature if there's one present). 90% of the time, it's kids that are reposting (which is why it's recommended to talk to them first; don't be a dick to children). 5% of the time it's trolls trying to get attention, and the remaining 5% is someone who wants to profit off your work, whether it's some random user or a big company (big company falls in the 1%, so you don't need to worry).

Tracing is when you take someone's picture and begin to draw over it, change what you want, and sometimes even call it your own. I say this since tracing can also be used as a tool for learning things like anatomy and posing and what not. It's only bad when it's posted publicly, and you say "yo bro I drew this myself, legit." Tracing is a smidge harder to spot, however.

As for everything else, yeah it's a matter of perception, but LET ME TELL YOU there are some fucking ridiculous "thefts" out there, which is why you should take any accusations and claims with a grain of salt (and I believe this could apply to coding as well). There are things like "art style theft," "pose theft," "color palette theft" and much more. I hate when people claim any of these because it's not only a stupid thing to accuse someone of, but it hinders creativity and growth on the side of the accused.

Jul 11, 2018 20:18:17 GMT @rhalgr said:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Art theft. Avatars.

LOL. You know what, my dude, as long as you ask (depending on the artist and what their FAQ says) and link back to the artist it's all good /o/. There are also some artists who let people use fan art without needing to credit (but you probably should it's just common courtesy), it's just original art you should probably stay away from unless you commissioned it.

Jul 11, 2018 20:18:17 GMT @rhalgr said:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Art theft. Avatars.

Rhalgr hitting where it hurts, skljdfhkshfds.

TIME TO RESURRECT A THREAD!

So! Let me explain what I'm doing here.

If people aren't aware, an editor for IGN recently got caught with their pants down. What do I mean? Well, they plagiarised almost word-for-word, a review of an up-and-coming indie game from a (then) smaller youtuber. And I'm talking they copy-pasted the transcript for the victim's review, changed a few words in an attempt to cover it all up, and put it into their written and video review of the game. Of course, the youtuber in question caught this writer since they were an avid visitor of IGN. They compiled all the evidence in a side-by-side video, and the rest snowballed from there. IGN fired the writer, and the video and written reviews were taken down.

So why am I bringing this up? Because this incident sparked a question in my head.

How do you determine plagiarism of writing/words? Sometimes, it's blatant like the case I presented above, but other times it can get VERY tricky. So how does one spot such a thing in the first place?